Many restaurants, fast food chains and other providers of ready-to-eat meal service are now offering home delivery service for their products. Increasing numbers of such providers are contracting their delivery service to persons not directly in their employ. As a result, the food providers are becoming increasingly concerned that their food products may become contaminated in the course of delivery by persons or circumstances beyond their control. Both food providers and their customers now seek means to insure that the food delivered is wholesome and safe to eat. In order to address this issue, the present invention describes secure food transport bags that provide definitive evidence of whether or not the bag has been opened prior to delivery of the food product.
Heated food products provide an additional challenge as excessive heat can affect the taste, texture and desirability of the food. For these reasons, a secure food transport bag must also provide effective venting. Some examples of tamper-proof food transport systems and related inventions include the following.
PCT Application No. PCT/CH2003/000112, published for Elsaesser, discloses a packaging sack having a closure and handle. A removable backing is peeled off of an adhesive layer at the flap portion. The flap portion is folded over the opening of bag. A handle extends from flap portion and is rotated with the flap portion when the flap portion is folded over the opening of bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,792,885, issued to Andrews is directed to a carrier bag. This device is an envelope with handle attachments. The handle attachment is secured to a flap. The handle attachment is fixed to the side of the envelope opposite the flap. When the flap is folded along crease, the handle attachment is reoriented to align with opposite handle attachment and forms a handle after the envelope is closed.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,516,266, issued to Simpson illustrates a parcel bag. This bag includes a flap for folding over a handle member and the bag mouth between walls. With the bag closed, a locking tongue engages the handle member through finger opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,427,161, issued to Sill et al. is directed to a plastic bag with a unitary handle and closure member. This plastic bag includes a body portion and a unitary handle and closure member secured to the body portion. The closure member has a handle portion and a closure portion. The closure portion is folded over the opening of body portion and fixed to the opposite side to seal the plastic bag. The closure portion does not appear to seal the entire opening and in addition to this lack of sealing the entire opening, the plastic bag includes vent openings.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0047686, issued to Elsaesser is directed to a resealable packaging bag. This bag includes a back side and a front side, and its lateral portions preferably have side gussets. Formed at the lower end of the bag is a floor and at the upper end there is an opening, through which the bag is filled or emptied. A backing is permanently fixed on the back side near the opening edge of the bag and projecting beyond it. The backing is divided by a separation line into two parts, the separation line being aligned exactly with the bag edge. Adhered to the backing is a section made out of a flexible material provided with a self-adhesive layer/label. The backing is provided on its side turned toward the label with a coating enabling the separation of the label. When the bag is to be closed, the portion of the backing projecting beyond the bag edge is pulled off, which is facilitated by the separation line. The part of the label protruding over the bag edge is bent over and the self-adhesive layer of the label which has become exposed through the pulling off of the portion of the backing is stuck onto the front side of the bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,445, issued to Lepisto et al. discloses a bag with an easy opening closure and handle. When closed, the bag may be either adhesively tacked of stapled at spaced locations, to the back panel to form a finger grip handle for carrying the bag and its contents.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,146,016, issued to Mucci et al. discloses a handle closure system. This system provides a reinforced handle with a notch. The notch is provided for placement of the fingers when the handle closure system is grabbed to carry the bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,339,304, issued to Von Haase is directed to a sealed bag and process for making same. The bag is sealed using pressure and heat with the sealed end having a pocket. When the bag is sealed, a separating device is used to interfere with the sealing process along the central portion of the seal. This interference creates the pocket which is to be used for hanging the bag on a hook.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,789, issued to Verbeke is directed to a plastic bag. This plastic bag has a handle formed as a pocket when a flap is heat sealed. The pocket is formed between two heat seals. An additional seal is made at a point below the formation of pocket to seal the bag entirely.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,973, issued to Lillkvist is directed to a carrying and closing device for bags and sacks. The bag includes a strip with a metal wire retained within the strip. The bag is folded down over the strip and then folded again together with the strip. This creates a handle with length sufficient to allow it to be grasped with two hands.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide secure food transport bags that provide positive evidence as to whether the bag has been opened after its initial sealing after filling with a food product. It is a further objective to provide sanitary, one-use disposable bags with tamper-evident seals. It is a still further objective of the invention to provide secure food transport bags with sufficient venting to accommodate hot food products. It is yet a further objective to provide such bags with comfortable, easy to use carrying handles. Finally, it is an objective of the present invention to provide tamper evident bags that are strong, secure and inexpensive to manufacture and simple to use.
While some of the objectives of the present invention are disclosed in the prior art, none of the inventions found include all of the requirements identified.